


Mission Circumstances

by Alley_Skywalker



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: First War with Voldemort, Insecurity, M/M, Only One Bed, Pining, Sharing a Bed, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 15:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29281044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alley_Skywalker/pseuds/Alley_Skywalker
Summary: Mission circumstances force Evan and Severus to stay in a motel with only one room available. Which inevitably means there's only one bed. Which also inevitably means, Severus has to share a bed with his best friend and embarrassing crush.
Relationships: Evan Rosier/Severus Snape
Comments: 8
Kudos: 18
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Mission Circumstances

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sparkysparky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparkysparky/gifts).



“Ten sickles,” the innkeeper said in a deep, gravely voice. 

Evan slid twenty across the counter, not bothering to put down his hood. “Two rooms, please.”

The innkeeper sniffed. “We only got the one room now. With the rain, you know.”

Severus could almost feel Evan rolling his eyes. “If it’s more money you want—”

“I want, but I only got one room.”

Before Evan could go for his wand, Severus grabbed his wrist and hissed, “He’s not lying; I checked.”

Evan deflated. “Fine. Give us the key.”

The innkeeper slid a rusty key and the extra ten sickles back to Evan. Without another word, they made their way down the dingy hallway to their room. The small motel was not exactly _dirty_ the way muggle establishments of this quality often were – cleaning charms cost nothing – but it still had about it the air of foul use and squalor.

“I still don’t know why we had to stay here,” Evan complained, his words almost drowned out by the boom and crack of the storm outside. The rain hammered against the roof and whistled in the cracks of the walls and poorly insulated windows. 

“Because this is the only place for miles not crawling with aurors out here and we needed to do the sweep tonight,” Severus reasoned, far more patiently than he felt. 

“I still think we could have apparated back in tomorrow morning. Who at Headquarters got the moronic idea that apparition is traceable?”

“Did you want to argue with Dolohov?” Severus snapped. 

Evan just shrugged, mumbling something, and unlocked the door to their room. They piled inside, locked the door and allowed themselves to take in the décor, if it could be called that. 

“Well,” Severus admitted. “One of us might want to sleep on the floor.” The bed was abysmally small. Not small enough to not physically fit two people, but certainly too small to fit two people so that they did not need to touch. And Severus _certainly_ did not want to share a bed snuggled up _way too close_ with Evan of all people. It would simply be too—too— Severus shivered at the thought of it. He did not need this. Not on a mission. Or ever. But certainly not on a mission. 

Evan, of course, with the privileged air of a rich pureblood brat, went directly to the bed and lay on it, barely bothering to kick off his boots. “Well, I’m certainly not sleeping on the floor.”

“What am I, your footman?”

Evan laughed, his eyes suddenly bright despite the poor humor he had been in all evening. “Severus, don’t be an idiot. We can both fit on this bed. People made due with worse back at school.”

To his own horror, Severus felt himself blushing. “Maybeifyou’refuckingthenyes,” he mumbled incoherently and threw off his cloak. He set down his bag, a little more gently, to account for all the potions in it, and began to put up wards on the door and walls. Behind him, Evan cast a couple of warming charms and directed the decrepit old kettle to poor itself full of water and get to boiling with the help of spells instead of a burner. 

“It won’t be that bad,” Evan said, as the kittle came to a whistle. “What do we have to be ashamed of? I mean, we’ve seen each other naked; this won’t be worse. Just not very comfortable, I wager. But I’m dead tired, anyway.”

Severus blanched. Yes, of course they had seen each other naked before. It was almost inevitable sharing a dorm room for years, not to mention all those times the Slytherin boys went swimming naked in the lake. But things were easier when they were children, for one, and the darkness hid Severus’s embarrassment – and other things – when they were older, for the other. Being pressed up against each other in the same bed, with nothing but their night things on, where he could feel the warmth of Evan’s skim through his shirt where their bodies would inevitably touch, or to feel Evan breath against his neck, or otherwise the rise and fall of his chest and back as he breathed… To be so close and be paralyzed by fear of his body betraying him, or else his stupid heart that couldn’t seem to accept the reality that his mind long-since had. That was quite a different beast from the others. 

The truth was that Evan was handsome and charming and popular and rich. He was everyone’s friend and likely anyone and everyone in their year who had any interest in men had crushed on him at one point or another. Once the war was over, Evan would marry some beautiful rich pureblood girl, and if he didn’t like her well enough, he would take a lover no less magnificent. And Severus could sneer at the airheaded follies of people more attractive or richer or more sociable than himself, could lie to himself all he wanted that his intelligence was a greater prize than anything they could offer, but he could not alter the fact that someone like Evan Rosier simply would not – _could not –_ fall in love with someone like him. That they were good friends was miracle enough. 

Severus had been here before. A different best friend, a different infatuation, a different dream – the same bleak result he should have expected and was likely to receive here if he was not careful. No, better not give himself any foolish ideas. 

Severus finished the wards and went to sit on the bed beside Evan, as there was no other place in the room to sit but an uncomfortable-looking desk chair. His lanky legs with their knobby knees hung off the edge of the bed, just barely covered up by the flaps of his robes. Somehow, Severus was unnaturally aware of them in that moment; just the prospect of having to undress and show them suddenly unbearable. _You’re being an idiot,_ he told himself curtly as Evan levitated a couple of shrunken travel mugs out of his own pack, enlarged them back to normal size, and began to pour the tea. _He isn’t even thinking about this._

The water was questionable quality, even after Evan’s filtering spells, which were admittedly better than Severus’s, and thus the tea was of a similarly questionable quality. They drank it in silence with a couple of biscuits, both lost in their own thoughts. 

“Are you thinking about tomorrow?” Evan asked finally. 

“Hm?” Severus looked up at him sharply, not immediately comprehending the question. He definitely had not been thinking about the mission. “Yes,” he said, distractedly. “The sweep went well but I always hate it when they do…”

“You’re just paranoid. We should take the small victories when we can. Besides, if we have to stay in this dump _and_ things still go badly, I’m going to punch someone.” Evan laughed, a little sad, fully aware of how foolish such a statement sounded in the context of a war. But if Severus dealt with his demons with spite and sarcasm, Evan dealt with them with jokes and forced lightheartedness. They were a terrible match, really. Yet, Severus’s skin still felt tingly and electrified, like he was going to burst into flames at any moment, the smallest flicker. 

“Still. There’s usually always some hitch or small thing. I have a hard time trusting things that are too smooth.” _Things that are too good to be true,_ he thought. 

Evan shrugged. “Then it’s going to be a long day tomorrow. We should go to bed.”

Severus took his time getting ready for bed, double checking the wards and the heating spells. He half-hoped that if he took long enough, Evan would simply fall asleep. But either because he couldn’t sleep when Severus was constantly rustling around or because it was too bright for him even with only a couple of candles still burning, or just plain old nerves, Evan was still awake when Severus ran out of ideas for reasonably stalling. Feeling oddly self-conscious, he undressed, not daring to take a peek to see if Evan was watching, got into his night things and scrambled under the blanket. 

A crackle of lightening lit up the room for a moment, bathing everything in shades of violet. Severus turned to face the wall, away from Evan, and prayed that sleep would come quickly. But in the stillness and darkness, he could feel Evan’s body too acutely beside him, the warmth of his skin radiating out. Their thighs touched inadvertently and every time one of them shifted, their arms, shoulders or sides brushed against each other, sending small electric shocks over Severus’s body. 

“Hey, Sev?” Evan said after some time, his voice hushed and a tone deeper than usual. Severus wanted to kill him for the way Evan’s breath felt against his neck, wet and warm, awakening needs and desires deep in the pit of his abdomen. “Are you awake?”

Severus bit his lip and kept quiet, pretending he was asleep. It would be weird to talk to Evan with his back to him, but even worse to turn around lie face to face…in bed…as if… Well. 

For a while, there was silence and stillness, and Severus began to hope that Evan had drifted off to sleep. But then there was rustling and movement—and suddenly Evan was pressed up against his back, a hand hesitantly resting on his waist. Severus startled, nearly jumping at the unexpected contact. Evan yelped and jumped back, almost falling off the bed. He sat up and pulled up his knees to his chest as Severus flipped onto his back and glared at him. “Rosier, what the hell are you doing?”

“I—I thought you were asleep. I—” Evan stuttered, eyes wide, looking guilty and ashamed and regretful all at once. Severus couldn’t decide if he wanted to slap or kiss that look of his face. “You—I just—it’s kind of drafty? And the bed’s small so it always feels like I’m going to roll off—and I just—” He broke off, now bright red. Severus stared at him, bewildered. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen Evan genuinely embarrassed. “Sorry.”

Severus groaned a rubbed both hands over his face. His heart was racing and so was his mind. It almost seemed like Evan had wanted to _snuggle,_ and was embarrassed by it almost as though… _No, no, no, don’t let yourself hope, don’t do that to yourself,_ Severus thought desperately. “I’m not really a cuddler,” he said aloud, trying to cover up his own embarrassment and anxiousness with his usual sarcasm and cynicism. 

Even slowly slid back down into a lying position, trying to take up as little room as possible and not touch Severus at all, which led to him almost hanging off the edge of the bed. “Sorry,” he repeated. “I know. I wasn’t trying to—” He swallowed and closed his eyes, still desperately red. “Just forget it.”

Severus turned on his side and watched Evan’s face for a few minutes, his heart hammering away in his chest. “Ev?” he said softly at last, so quiet and wispy it was almost drowned out by the storm. 

“Yea?” Evan glanced over at him cautiously. 

Severus stayed very still, as though afraid of spooking a wild animal. “Let’s not make things weird.”

Slowly, Evan turned over on his side and looked into his face. “Do you think it’s weird?”

“I don’t really know what to think.”

“Would you really have hated it if…?”

Severus gave a short, bitter bark of a laugh. This was such a trap. But he couldn’t lie to Evan, to those big blue eyes. Not about _this._ “No.”

Something in Evan’s expression relaxed. “Do you think…maybe we can talk after we’re done tomorrow?”

The war’s presence never went away, always hanging in the back of Severus’s consciousness, pressing against his temples and chest in a heavy foreboding. But now it was especially sharp, a needle just under his heart. They couldn’t even be sure if they would both make it home safe tomorrow. He nodded numbly, then forced himself to say. “Yes.”

Evan closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. “Let’s sleep then.” 

Severus followed suit; he could feel the warmth of Evan’s skin, the rush of his breath, and, if he focused, the subtle rise and fall of his chest. He didn’t bother to turn toward the wall this time and allowed the rumble of the storm and the feeling of Evan, warm and alive, beside him loll him to sleep.


End file.
